Here we have a genuinely striking and historically significant original silver gelatin photograph of a large group of African American soldiers. They are all business and ready for action. We’re looking at approximately 30 to 35 men arranged in four rows on the steps of a brick building, every one of them in sharp U.S. Army dress uniform, every one of them looking straight into the camera.
The detail is remarkable: olive drab tunics with four patch pockets, fitted waist belts, jodhpur breeches, lace-up boots and puttees, peaked garrison caps, visible rank insignia. A photographer’s signature appears faintly in the lower right corner. These men were not slouching for a snapshot. This was a formal occasion.
A separate card backing, revealing a previous scrapbook placement, carries a penciled inscription reading “WWI / Buffalo Soldiers / 110th Texas Infantry / Colored troops.” It is a tantalizing label, but one worth questioning. The uniform details here, particularly the M1926/M1927-style service coat that replaced the WWI-era tunic, point to a date more consistent with the late 1920s than the Great War itself. A “110th Texas Infantry” designation does not match cleanly with known WWI Black regimental records either. Our best read is that the inscription was added later by someone working from memory or family tradition, an honest misidentification of a photograph that clearly meant something to whoever kept it.
The original Buffalo Soldiers, the 24th and 25th Infantry and 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments, gained their name and fame on the Western frontier during the Indian Wars of the late 1800s , but by the interwar years the term had taken on broader meaning, used with pride to refer to Black soldiers in the U.S. Army generally. More than 30,000 African American Texans had served in WWI , and the men who followed them into uniform in the years after carried that legacy forward, still serving in a segregated army, still showing up in full dress, still standing at attention for the camera.
Whoever these men were, this photograph is a real artifact of Black military service in America during one of its most complicated chapters. The names are lost to us. The image is not.
The rare photograph comes out of an old military collector’s estate in Minneapolis. The photograph was likely taken in the late 1920s.
The awesome photography measures 7” wide x 5” tall. There is some crazing throughout (see pic). On the reverse is evidence of scrapbook placement. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.
I ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO boxes). Free shipping on the historic photograph.
A powerful, important relic of some military warriors.
